Presently, many women and some men wish to have their ears pierced, so that they can wear a variety of earrings or other ear ornaments. For this purpose, there have been proposed a variety of different devices and techniques, intended to facilitate ear piercing.
One relatively early proposal can be found in the DiCicco U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,848. This discloses an apparatus for piercing earlobes. It has first and second jaws adapted to receive the mating portions of the ear ornament, usually a stud and clasp. Additionally, a positioning plate is provided, so that an earlobe can be held between this positioning plate and another positioning plate carried by the second jaw. The apparatus requires two separate actions. First, a closure trigger is pulled, to move the second jaw, to hold the earlobe between the positioning plates. Then, a separate trigger has to be actuated to release the spring-loaded first jaw. Part of the ornament is held in the first jaw and this is then driven through the ear to pierce it. Thus, two separate actions are required, making this a reatively cumbersome and inconvenient device.
The DiCicco apparatus is now being superseded by single action devices, which require just one trigger to be pulled to complete the entire ear-piercing operation.
The Mann U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,507 discloses a sterile earlobe-piercing assembly. Here, a relatively complex arrangement is provided for mounting the stud or piercing earring. The piercing earring is mounted in a cartridge having an elongate opening supporting the pin and an aligned second opening. The cartridge is in turn mounted in a cartridge housing. A plunger can displace the cartridge within the housing and then eject the earring from the cartridge. A wire nut assembly is provided holding the wire nuts or clasps for two earrings. The wire nuts are held in blind bores in a wire nut cartridge, which is mounted in the device. The overall configuration of the various cartridges and cartridge housing is quite complex.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,668 there is disclosed an earlobe piercing device including a means for holding an earlobe to numb the earlobe prior to insertion of a stud. The stud and clasp are held directly in the device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,740 there is disclosed an ear piercing system using a gun-like instrument. Here, the stud and clasp are again held in cartridges. However, the cartridges do not ensure that the gun itself does not contact the person's earlobe, to ensure sterile operation. In fact, the drawings suggest that the earlobe is contacted on both sides by the actual jaws themselves.
The Rubenstein patent discloses an ear piercing device in which an earlobe is held between a pair of positioning guides. Again, the problem of the sterile mounting of the stud and clasp, and an overall sterile technique are not discussed.
A relatively complex sterile earlobe piercing assembly is disclosed in the Reil U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,563. Here, a gun-type instrument is again used. This requires three disposable components, namely a stud holder, an alignment member and a clasp carrying member. Even so it is believed that it will not guarantee that the earlobe only contacts the sterile disposably components; the earlobe may contact parts of the main gun or instrument assembly.
Two relatively recent published United Kingdom patent application Nos. 2,142,538A and 2,149,305A both name W. J. Gardner as the inventor and relate to improvements in ear piercing apparatus. Here, the back clasps are held in a disposable insert. Each stud is located in a disposable cassette. In the earlier application, the stud cassette is mounted on one jaw, and the stud is driven out of it by a plunger. In the later application, the stud is actually mounted in the end of the plunger.
It is to be realized that with modern ear piercing equipment, ear piercing is a relatively, quick, simple and painless operation. As such, it does not require the presence of highly qualified medical personnel and is routinely carried out in jewellery and department stores. The operator of the ear piercing equipment frequently does not ensure that it is properly cleaned between customers.
As a consequence, there is the risk of infection being transferred by the gun or instrument itself. It has been known for women who have had their ears pierced to contract hepatitis or other diseases carried by the blood. It only requires a microscopic quantity of blood to be carried by the instrument from one customer to the next. This situation has prompted government agencies in some countries to pass laws to protect customers, with a view to protecting them from contracting such diseases.
As detailed above, whilst there are earlier proposals which address this problem, many of them have various drawbacks. Thus, many of them are relatively complex, and the disposable, sterile components for holding the stud and clasp are quite complex. They would thus be quite expensive, which would be a deterrent to their common use. Further, a common failing with many earlier proposals is that they do not fully ensure that the patients earlobe does not contact the gun or instrument itself.
What is desired is an ear piercing apparatus, in which the ear-piercing gun and disposable elements holding the stud and clasp ensure that the person's earlobe or face cannot contact the gun. The person's earlobe should only contact the stud and clasp and the disposable elements holding them. Then, even if significant quantities of blood etc. are carried by the gun, since there is no direct contact with the patient's earlobe, the risk of infection should be minimal.
Further, the disposable elements holding the stud and clasp should be configured so that they can be easily manipulated by the operator and mounted on the gun with little or no risk of the operator contaminating the stud or clasp.